A San Francisco Adventure
Jul. 11th, 2021 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjSo I was hanging out at a 4th of July party last weekend and someone was gushing about how great the Pompeii exhibit at the Palace of the Legion of Honor museum was, which reminded it I wanted to see it. So I picked up my phone and bought a ticket for today at noon. (They limit and schedule tickets to maintain social distancing.) Given San Francisco traffic and PotLoH parking, I decided the most practical thing to do was to bicycle.
Of course, this assumes taking BART over to SF in the first place. I'm not *that* bad-ass. But it's still a bit of a trek from the Embarcadero all the way out past the Golden Gate Bridge footing to the museum. The app on my phone says that bicycling time is about an hour, but I didn't intend to time things quite that tightly. Plus, I wanted to pick up coffee and breakfast at the Ferry Building and not necessarily take the most direct route. So I took the first BART train of the day and got into SF a bit after 9am. Left the Ferry Building having breakfasted and coffeed around 9:30. In theory, that leaves me two and a half hours until my noon appointment, right?
Followed the Embarcadero around until the bike route suggests cutting away from the shoreline to avoid Fisherman's Wharf, then picked up the shoreline again right before Fort Mason. Stopped for a second coffee along Crissy Field then started the climb. First you climb up to the bridge footing, then duck under the highway. Then you continue to climb up through the Presidio. When you hit the highest elevation along that route, it would in theory be a nice gentle downhill to get the to Legion of Honor. Alas, you take a precipitous downhill and then start climbing again. There were a few times I got off and walked the steepest bits. Biking every day on the Concord rec trails doesn't keep you in shape for serious hills. But the scenery is nice (starting around the Marina down in the flats and then all the way through that north-eastern part of SF, you get some fun architecture, more in the Mediterranean style than the Queen Anne's of mid-town).
Made it to the museum with half an hour to spare, which validated my plan to start off early. Lovely exhibit. Besides the Pompeii material (which focuses on food and dining), there was a great sculpture exhibit of the work of Wangechi Mutu, with the works deliberately juxtaposed against and among the permanent Rodin material to interesting effect.
Took a more straightforward bike route back which avoided the steep climbs in the Presidio but still ended up following the Embarcadero back to the Ferry Building. I meant to have a sit-down late lunch but all the sit-down places were full, so I settled for an Acme olive roll and some Cowgirl Creamery cheese, plus a Recchiuti chocolate for dessert. Mmm.
Rather exhausted from all that -- too tired to really have dinner. But it's fun to do something more ambitious even than bopping down to Walnut Creek and back for a change.
Of course, this assumes taking BART over to SF in the first place. I'm not *that* bad-ass. But it's still a bit of a trek from the Embarcadero all the way out past the Golden Gate Bridge footing to the museum. The app on my phone says that bicycling time is about an hour, but I didn't intend to time things quite that tightly. Plus, I wanted to pick up coffee and breakfast at the Ferry Building and not necessarily take the most direct route. So I took the first BART train of the day and got into SF a bit after 9am. Left the Ferry Building having breakfasted and coffeed around 9:30. In theory, that leaves me two and a half hours until my noon appointment, right?
Followed the Embarcadero around until the bike route suggests cutting away from the shoreline to avoid Fisherman's Wharf, then picked up the shoreline again right before Fort Mason. Stopped for a second coffee along Crissy Field then started the climb. First you climb up to the bridge footing, then duck under the highway. Then you continue to climb up through the Presidio. When you hit the highest elevation along that route, it would in theory be a nice gentle downhill to get the to Legion of Honor. Alas, you take a precipitous downhill and then start climbing again. There were a few times I got off and walked the steepest bits. Biking every day on the Concord rec trails doesn't keep you in shape for serious hills. But the scenery is nice (starting around the Marina down in the flats and then all the way through that north-eastern part of SF, you get some fun architecture, more in the Mediterranean style than the Queen Anne's of mid-town).
Made it to the museum with half an hour to spare, which validated my plan to start off early. Lovely exhibit. Besides the Pompeii material (which focuses on food and dining), there was a great sculpture exhibit of the work of Wangechi Mutu, with the works deliberately juxtaposed against and among the permanent Rodin material to interesting effect.
Took a more straightforward bike route back which avoided the steep climbs in the Presidio but still ended up following the Embarcadero back to the Ferry Building. I meant to have a sit-down late lunch but all the sit-down places were full, so I settled for an Acme olive roll and some Cowgirl Creamery cheese, plus a Recchiuti chocolate for dessert. Mmm.
Rather exhausted from all that -- too tired to really have dinner. But it's fun to do something more ambitious even than bopping down to Walnut Creek and back for a change.
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Date: 2021-07-13 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2021-07-19 03:25 am (UTC)